If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Here's a stab at a bit of a touchy subject, but it would be nice to see how they answer if you don't feel it's too impolitic a question. Feel free to re-word it or ask for clarification or whatever.

"We've been told in the past that the heavy focus on main characters (and away from female characters) across the Hasbro boys' lines is due in large part to retailer demands. However, it seems like the norm that the biggest 'pegwarmers' are usually these same main characters (Clonetroopers in the Clone Wars line, Vader in the main Star Wars line, Bumblebee in Transformers, Snake Eyes and movie Roadblock in G.I.Joe, etc), simply because more of them are being produced and some buyers don't see the need in having multiple versions of a character -- and, on a related note, female characters tend to move quickly when they are actually made (the obvious exception being Yarna d'al Gargan). You as the manufacturer are obviously more involved in production and work more closely with kids and collectors than the retailers,. Though understandably the information couldn't be made public, do you collect data regarding the tendency of these main characters to be less desirable? If so, have you considered pointing out to the major retailers the real danger of 'main character burnout' that often seems to plague various lines?"

However, I wonder if Hasbro will look at it and think, "We'll take the money anyway we can get it. If the buyers know BumbleBee and not Cyclonus..."

But Chuxter is right. This hurts Hasbro getting more purchases by the retailers in the long run (and the retailers too of course).

You know, I keep a shopping list of things I will need in advance - like buying replacements for my bathroom items before I run out of the supplies I already have. I time my visit to a Target at like 7:45 am so I am the first one in when the doors open at 8 am to see what they've stocked.

I know that I need to buy tonic water for example (Quinine totally assists any leg cramps). Instead of making multiple trips to the store, I'll pick up my water, pet food, soap, lotion, whatever I need when I think I can have first picks at whatever they've stocked for toys.

That being said, and fortunately because gas prices suck, I don't "hunt" any more. (Nothing new that I really want is coming out anyway until Springer ships for TFs).

So if I sound like any other collector here, there might be at least a few of us who Target or Wal-Mart would benefit from the business they'd get by purchasing more new SW and TF toys that collectors would pursue. That's why these retailers stock toys in the first place. And Hasbro does better business with more purchases of course.

BAD Pts Need:R5-C7 lf leg (x2), , R4-P44 right leg BAD Pts Offered For Trade: PM me - I have lots of parts now including BG-J38!. New Kyle Katarn is also available.

SirStevesGuide.com: Over the past couple of years, especially right now with Qui-Gon and [Ep 1] Obi-Wan, you've packed the same - not just the same characters but even the same figures - in multiple lines at once, like Vintage and Movie Heroes and they're kind of hanging around. Is there any worry that that's kind of accelerating the ceiling on those figures being hit, or are they still selling through?

Hasbro (DD): Well, that's the key to learning so that we can apply that learning to our future releases. Previously, those figures would kind of sell every month in, month out, they were greatest hits, and we need those, we need those to help offset all the new tooling in other figures, but now we've had... the surprise is that we've kind of reached saturation on these. Obviously we want them to continue on and find new audiences all the time, which kind of underscores a challenge that we have right now with Star Wars is we don't have an inexhaustible collector base, and we have to learn from the current release quantities and use that to influence what we're doing next year, say with Droid Factory or Clone Wars and any other lines, to make sure we don't over-release.

Hasbro (BM): Are we going to be smarter selecting figures? Yes. Are those main characters gonna go away? No they're not, because imagine a kid coming into Star Wars and not having the ability to get an Obi-Wan, it's just not a good solution.

Well, I think they solved the over-ordering problem for Droid Factory and Clone Wars by just cancelling them both.

1) Circuit Breaker. Marvel owns her. She's from a Hasbro property. Hasbro has the Marvel license. Can we get her, even if she's a ridiculously overpriced convention exclusive?

2) Any word on the second wave of discount store G.I.Joes? The first wave went only to Dollar General, and was distributed about as well as could be expected. The second wave, a few popped up at Marshalls at the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. Does Marshalls have more that, for some reason, haven't shown up? Are they going to more stores, but haven't actually hit shelves yet?

3) Female Transformers and Joes: why aren't we getting more? Sure, there's the old "boys don't buy figures of female characters," but that's not entirely true, and there are more female fans of both than Hasbro seems to recognize. Even if they wound up being store exclusives, why have we never had a female Cobra troop builder, or a Generation One Arcee? They would probably outsell the fourth Snake Eyes and sixth Bumblebee in any given year.

4) A proper G.I.Joe/Transformers crossover has never been done. If you're willing to make a $150 Metroplex, wouldn't at least a one-off Generation Two Megatron scaled to work with Cobra forces be a no-brainer? (And, hey, repaint him as Bludgeon. We're down with that.)

5) [Granted, this one might seem a little harsh, but I'll be a friend forever and ever to anyone who can ask this, even if it's not on the record.] Why is G.I.Joe the "redheaded stepchild" of the Hasbro boys' lines? Yes, it's not as popular as Transformers or Star Wars. However, practically no effort goes into marketing G.I.Joe, and some of the decisions have been questionable from a fan perspective. The Resolute miniseries was buried in a midnight time slot and aired once, despite being well-received and penned by a highly regarded writer of both novels and comics. Despite being at least as high-quality as Transformers: Prime, which was heavily promoted on the Hub and elsewhere, Renegades was practically buried in a Friday night time slot and hardly ever advertised. (Also, the only Renegades toys were thrown into the 30th Anniversary line as a seeming afterthought, months after the final episode aired, and with many of them being repaints of older figures that didn't bear much similarity to the Renegades cartoon.) Hasbro is teaming with IDW to bring fans figures of the IDW versions of various Transformers, but Joe fans have literally begged for years for the same thing with not even a single figure produced. Even on Facebook, Hasbro runs an excellent Transformers fan page that discusses all current incarnations of the property and even shows sneak peek photos of upcoming figures, but there is absolutely nothing like this (remarkably inexpensive) marketing for Joe.

True, G.I.Joe is not currently as popular as Transformers. But it has been in the past (even moreso, at times). The line is a cultural icon, and probably more recognizable with the general public (outside kids and fandom) than Transformers. And, for the most part, the figures are arguably the best Hasbro is producing in any current line, and both the original and updated incarnations of the comic are going strong. So why produce such high-quality toys and not take the seemingly simple step of marketing them to potential buyers?